


Conclusion

by Trixie_Baggins



Series: Childhood [3]
Category: Now You See Me (2013)
Genre: Abandonment Issues, F/M, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 02:31:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4162308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trixie_Baggins/pseuds/Trixie_Baggins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bunch of fics that tie up some loose ends from 'Childhood'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mother

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GuiltyPleasuresAndDeadlySins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuiltyPleasuresAndDeadlySins/gifts), [Broke_Traveler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broke_Traveler/gifts).



It was just a side thing.  Something to distract the crowd while Danny and Henley set everything up for the main attraction.  It was supposed to be easy, just come in, high-five eachother and keep walking.  Except anything having to do with Jack Wilder was never just that easy.    
  
Merritt was walking towards him and then when he lifted his hand to high-five Jack, something clicked.  All of a sudden he remembered his father.  He remembered being six years old and protecting his sister’s body with his own, so that the sad excuse for a human being that was Mr Wilder couldn’t touch her.  
  
He left.  Jack didn’t know where he was going, only that he needed to get out.   Henley found him curled up in a ball in the corner of the public bathroom on their floor.  ‘Hey,’ she said, reaching out and Jack flinched, trying to do the impossible by wedging himself further into the corner.  ‘It’s okay, Jack.  It’s me, Henley.’  
  
Slowly and calmly she sat down next to him.  Henley gently put her arm around his shoulders and rubbed his back.  ‘Just take some deep breaths.’  Jack tried to.  ‘Good, that’s good.  You’re okay.’  She managed to get Jack to calm down enough so that he could actually breathe normally and stop shaking.  
  
‘You wanna talk about it?’  
  
He shook his head.  
  
‘That’s okay.  Just know this, I don’t know where you came from, or what you’ve gone through, but you’re not alone anymore.  We’re your family now.  We’re here for you, no matter what.  We’re not gonna leave you.  Got it?’  
  
Jack nodded.  
  
‘Good.  Now just let me know when you wanna go back in.’  
  
Some people said that Jack needed a psychiatrist, or that he needed meds or that he needed to get over it.  All he really needed, though, was someone to take his hand and tell him that everything was going to be okay.  He needed someone to be there for him, to reassure him, to love him, to be his mother.   That was Henley.    
  
Growing up, Jack had done everything he could in order to make sure they had what they needed in order to survive.  But now he had what he needed most of all- people who cared about him.  
  



	2. Carousel

The three of them- Danny, Merritt and Henley- had all been impressed by the forethought and skill that Dylan had to have in order to lead them on like that.  Jack had been impressed by the carousel.  Danny was the control-freak, the business oriented one.  He wanted to sit down with Dylan and plan out what they were going to be doing in the future.  Dylan, on the other hand, was in a position to be laid-back, and so he was.  Frankly, he was more interested in Jack’s reaction to the carousel.  
  
‘Hey man, I’m really sorry for kicking your ass,’ he had apologized, and seemed genuine.    
  
Later, Dylan had sat him down to talk about it.  ‘Where’d you learn to fight like that?  Magicians don’t usually have those kinds of skills.’  
  
‘I learned from my dad.’  
  
‘Oh?’  
  
‘I had to.  To protect myself.’  He paused.  ‘And Jenna.’  There was a look on his face instantly that showed he didn’t want to say that, and that it had just slipped out before he could stop.  He’d always been so guarded with everyone, including the team, and that just didn’t stop.   
  
It was obvious Jack didn’t want to talk about it so Dylan didn’t push the issue.  So instead these five adults, six if you count Alma, sat on a carousel in the middle of the night in silence.  And Dylan watched the years slip away from Jack.  He watched him be care-free, to smile and have fun.  
  



	3. Disney World

 Whenever they had played a show in a new city, Jack had always wanted to go see the sights.  It was something that wreaked havoc on Danny’s control-freak nature and something that the others had always taken for granted.  Sure, their lives weren’t great, but they’d been around.  They’d seen what they should have.  Jack didn’t have such luck.  He’d grown up in the run-down portion of LA.  Magic had been his ticket out of there, the only way he’d gotten out.  
  
When they were in New York, Dylan and Henley, even Merritt sometimes, had patiently taken him out and let him explore Central Park, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty.  They’d even gone to see a Knicks game and a show on Broadway.  Jack ate up every part of the city they showed him, and it was like that in every city they went to.    
  
Disney World is one of the most iconic places you go on family vacations as a child.   Except for Jack, who didn’t have vacations or the ability to be a child, or even a family, really.  Inside every person is a little kid, but for some people it’s easier to find than for others.  For Henley and Dylan it was pretty easy, but it was harder to find Merritt and Danny’s inner child.    
  
Maybe it was that they were all in a good mood, or the fact they were at Disney World, or that Jack’s happiness was so contagious, but in all of the pictures they took, everyone was smiling.  It was summer, it was a vacation, and it was with Jack’s family.  Not only was it something that they should’ve done, it was what they needed to.  And more than that, it was what Jack deserved.  
  



	4. The Water Park

Disney World.  It had been fun and they’d all enjoyed themselves.  Though how could you not?  It was Disney World.  Near the apartment where they were staying, there was a water park and Jack had never been to one.  He wanted to go, but was still introverted and didn’t want to go alone.  Henley had agreed to take him, and he seemed to be having a good time.  
  
Henley had worn one of her more ‘modest’ swimsuits, but someone like her tended to get attention no matter what she was wearing.  It was only a matter of time before a guy (or rather a group of guys) wandered over to hit on her.  Jack and Henley were lucky that they had gotten to take some pictures before Jack flattened one of the pushier guys and had the two of them kicked out.    
  
In the parking lot, said guy had one of the more dangerous things today- an injured pride.  He’d managed to get Jack on the parking lot’s concrete and get a couple of blows in before Jack turned the tables.  In a matter of seconds Injured-Pride-Guy was splayed on the concrete, his arm twisted in Jack’s hands and the latter’s knee-cap applying pressure between his shoulder blades.  
  
Henley managed to pull him off before the cops showed up.  ‘It’s fine.’  
  
Jack couldn’t meet her eyes and kept rambling on about ruining everything and although he kept apologizing, the name ‘Jenna’ came up more than once.  
  
‘Jack.  Jack.  It’s okay.  Nobody’s hurt; everything’s okay.’  
  
He just kept staring at his feet.  
  
‘Jack, look at me.’  Finally he made eye contact.  ‘Everything’s okay.  You did nothing wrong.  Come on, let’s go home.’  
  
The younger nodded and together they went back to the apartment.


	5. Riley

 They were in Boston, a town known for its natural beauty, especially in the fall.  There were trees in all the parks, and there were brilliant colours in all the trees.  Whenever they saw a park, Jack would ask (without really asking, he hadn’t gotten there yet) if they could stop.  Eventually Dylan let him and he spent a long time just sitting under a tree collecting all the leaves that floated down.  He seemed to be enjoying himself, especially in the trees, and Dylan made a mental note to take him to DC during the spring.  
  
Unfortunately for the rest of the team, the park they stopped at also happened to be a dog park and there were a handful of people around trying to get rid of litters their dogs had illegitimately conceived.  Jack, of course, loved all of the dogs, but there was one in particular that grabbed his attention.  
  
She was the youngest in her litter, the runt of it.  She was picked on by all the other dogs, but she was a fighter.  She stood up for herself, against all odds.  Jack didn’t beg.  He didn’t even ask for stuff.  He never had, starting from a very young age, but when he saw her, he practically begged Dylan and Henley to let him keep her.    
  
They did, and from that day on, Riley, as the puppy had been christened, called their home hers.  It was one of the ‘traditional’ struggles of being a kid.  Wanting a pet, and your parents not letting you have one.  But Jack had never been a kid, not really, and so letting him keep the dog was sort of their way of letting him have a little piece of the youth that was stolen from him.  
  



	6. The Fight

‘Danny, I’m sick and tired of this.’

‘Of what, Henley?’

‘Do I have to tell you?’

‘Oh, yes, please do. Please deign to inform me what it is I’ve done this time.’

‘Maybe it’s that attitude you have of always thinking you’re above everyone else.’

‘You’re one to talk, Henley.’

She scoffed. 

‘What?’

‘Are you sleeping around?’

‘What?’

‘That girl, the other night, who was she?’

‘Just a friend.’

‘A friend, really? And do all of your “just friends” flirt with you?’

‘Henley…..’

‘No, Danny, this happened before, and I can’t do this. Not again.’

‘Henley….’

Henley stormed out, slamming the door behind her. It was only then that Danny turned to see Jack standing there, a shell-shocked look of sorts on his face. ‘What do you want?’

‘Uh…uh….’

‘Spit it out.’

He couldn’t. Instead all he could do was turn and leave. Dylan found him, later, in the darkest corner of his toolshed, hiding and shaking. He sat with him, his arm draped over his shoulders as if he could protect the younger from the world. And with Dylan’s resolve, he just might.


	7. Glass and Diamonds

It was New Year’s.  They had all partied hard, maybe too hard.  Everybody had a nice little buzz going, except for Danny who was a lot closer to being drunk.  Somehow, a dart contest came up as a good idea, and within a matter of minutes they were lined up to see who had the best aim.  It was Jack, of course; it turns out that darts and cards are a lot alike.    
  
By that time the great J Daniel Atlas was, in fact, completely intoxicated.  The darts were sitting on the table and he reached for one.  Instead of grabbing it, however, he grabbed the scotch glass he had set there just a few moments before.  Shards of glass flew everywhere when it hit the wall, and there was the unmistakable sound of breaking glass.  
  
Dylan was less worried about the mess than Jack.  When the glass hit the wall he had visibly flinched.  Now he merely stood in the middle of the room, white as a sheet, frozen.  His eyes were seemingly unseeing and he was quivering.  
  
Henley reached out to him, and he jumped. He whirled to face her, jaw set.  Dylan materialized in between him, in his calm Dylan way.  ‘Jack.  Jack?’  
  
Somehow it seemed to get through to him and he nearly collapsed, Dylan catching him the only reason he didn’t hit the floor.  The six of them all took a minute to compose themselves before sleep was unanimously agreed upon.  
  
Although they all slept in separate rooms (minus Henley and Danny on occasion) Dylan found himself in Jack’s that night.  Never before had he noticed the nightmares that he was plagued with.  The way he moved constantly, trying to get comfortable.  Once that night Riley made a funny noise and Jack jerked awake, gun in hand.    
  
He saw Dylan and breathed an audible sigh of relief.  
  
‘How long have you had nightmares, Jack?’ the latter asked.  
  
‘Every night since I was four.’  
  
‘What is it?’  
  
‘My dad.  Always my dad.’  
  
‘Wanna talk about it?’  Jack always said no, but Dylan kept asking out of habit.  
  
‘He used to beat me.  He would’ve beaten Jenna if I let him.  He was drunk most of the time, but was actually meaner sober.  I was never scared of him, I was scared I’d end up like him.’  Dylan had so many questions but didn’t want to interrupt in case he didn’t start again.  
  
‘As long as I can remember, he never held a job.  We lived of my part-time job and welfare.  He’s the reason I learned how to fight.  Because I was tired of being helpless.  Jenna, well you’ve met her, she wanted to go to art school.  When she was fifteen, she earned a scholarship to one in France, and I worked extra jobs to get her there.  After she left, I did too, and haven’t looked back since.  Yet it still haunts me, what he did to me, what he could’ve done to Jenna.  Until February, I hadn’t seen my sister in four years.  I constantly think did I do the right thing?  Did she really deserve to get shipped off without family or any other connection? ‘  
  
Jack had sat up, but was still staring at the sheets as if he was hoping they would swallow him whole.  ‘Jack?’  Nothing.  ‘Jack, look at me.’  A glance up.  ‘Jack, there are people who say that children from abusive households are weak, that they must have done something to deserve it.  Jack, I want you to know that it’s bullshit.  You are loved, and cared about and a valued member of this team.  If anything, your growing up made you stronger- you took steps to make sure that your sister was happy, disregarding your own happiness.  You encountered hell on a daily basis, and yet you’ve still managed to be out-going, to be optimistic, and to be loving.’  As if to enunciate his point, Riley crawled up into Jack’s lap.    
  
‘I talked to this shrink, once.  She said I was like glass- easy to break and impossible to fix.’  
  
‘Jack…. If we’re using a metaphor to describe you, it would be as a diamond.  Diamonds start as these rough shapes of what they can be.  With love and care, they turn into something beautiful, but they were formed by excessive amounts of pressure.  Diamonds are one of the strongest, most durable substances on the earth.  That, Jack, that is you.’   
  
Jack smiled.  The one only the Horsemen and Jenna had seen.  ‘Can I just say one thing?’  
  
‘Sure.’  
  
‘…….Metaphors suck.’  
  
Dylan chuckled.  ‘Get some sleep, Wilder.’  
  
‘Night, Dylan.’  
  
‘Night, Jack.’ 

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to mention that I'm not one of those authors that have people comment on their works asking for sequals. I was fortunate enough to have that done on 'Childhood.' This is for you guys.


End file.
